Jordan Hodson: Music production @jordanhodson-blog - Tumblr Blog

Tutorial 1: Music to video

For this tutorial, i used various volume envelopes and sequencing in order to fit music behind the Adrenaline X video. Firstly, i snapped the first audio section to the logo and then faded in the Zero.7 track rather than playing it from the start at full volume, by doing this the track faded in subtly and blended in with the other audio as well as the video more professionally.

Volume envelopes.

I then faded in the Greenday track, 'American idiot' and faded it out gradually, dropping it completely as the speech began.'

I repeated these methods again with the Royksopp track.

However, due to a latency error when exporting the video, when the video is opened the audio tracks are slowed down quite dramatically, meaning that the files on Audition still match the video and play in synchronisation, yet when played on a quicktime player for example, the audio no longer matches the video i.e. speech does not match mouth movements. Therefore i was only able to export the finished tutorial as a WAV file.

tutorial one by jordan music production

Final video.

Shot using Mac webcam and I-movie.

All sounds recorded around the vicinity of Headingley university campus and arranged/sequenced in Logic pro, Cubase and Adobe audition etc.

#video production #audio

Tutorial 8: Audio sequencing

Firstly, i created a new empty project in Logic with four audio tracks. I then imported several tracks into the 'bin,' as well as changing the snapping function to beats. This aided the ease of sequencing and looping the kick drum track as it snapped every beat of the drum to fall precisely. Using the scissor function i sliced each individual hit of the kick drum and duplicated them, then turning the loop function on in order to create a loop to build an arrangement around, naming the track 'kick drum.'

Creating a loop.

I then dragged other samples onto new tracks and repeated the slicing process, finding hits of each piece of audio that i liked and then duplicating them and fitting them to the snap of the beat in order to fit the beat of the kick drum. To trigger MIDI samples from the keyboard i highlighted all four areas of the audio regions and pressed CTRL-E, which brought up the 'convert regions to new sampler track' menu. I named the MIDI note 'kick drum loop' and changed the start of the 'trigger note range' to F.

Converting audio samples to MIDI notes.

Converting audio regions into MIDI notes allowed me to view the notes themselves on the piano scroll, enabling me to input, move, stretch or delete individual notes etc. For example displayed in the picture i inputted various different other notes into the synth section of the loop. Although i was relatively pleased with the loop, both myself and my tutor thought the loop could perhaps make use of other samples as well as being longer in duration.

Finished loop.

LOGIC by jordan music production

#tutorial 8 #audio sequencing #logic #sampling #loops

Tutorial 5: Inputting and editing MIDI

Inputting MIDI

To allow me to coordinate live recorded audio alongside MIDI input tracks, i used Cubase 4. Cubase 4 lets the user record MIDI tracks as well as being able to import and manipulate audio tracks, and then sequencing them to fit the MIDI tracks i.e. a MIDI drum beat. Firstly i assigned a drum track to Halione (channel 10) and recorded a drum beat to a click track at 130 bpm. After finding a section which i found fitted the arrangement i wanted to make i then cut up the track using the scissors tool and looped the appropriate parts as well as duplicating them.

Importing audio.

I then imported a recorded phone ring tone and again repeated the cutting process, allowing me to create a different melody/structure to the ring tone itself which would fit the drum loop. However initially the timing of the melody did not fit the drum loop so i quantized the drum loop to 1/8. I then rearranged the sections of the melody i wanted to play over the drums accordingly.

Adding synth pads.

Now that i had merged audio and MIDI together i assigned a second Halione track to the arrangement, named Halione(2) on the track list and inspector panel. I then recorded a synth melody behind the previous audio and MIDI tracks.

Finished arrangement, incorporating two seperate MIDI tracks on different channels with an audio track.

Although i was advised to perhaps use more percussive samples when importing audio tracks in order to layer the track more dynamically, i did not do this due to time constrains.

Finished Quantization mix

#tutorial 5 #editing #input #MIDI

Project idea

Initially our project revolved around the concept of a puppet being controlled by music; the idea of music being the primary source of life being the key theme of the video. First ideas for the music to be used were based upon a hip/hop beat, the continous, precise rhythms of the genre proving to be a strong foundation in which to change camera shots in coordination with the beats of the music etc. However, our idea changed throughout the weeks as we found that to shoot a one minute twenty video purely in stop motion was not only time consuming but very limiting to what ideas we could use in order for the video to develop in a linear fashion as well as maintaining a level of interest in the audience. Therefore the idea then evolved that an actual human should be controlled and ‘plugged in’ literally by music. This idea proved effective as we were able to show off techniques learnt and using them in partnership with each other during the video, for example stop motion is in use at the same time as live footage being played etc. Music for the new video idea was based upon minimal dance music as it allowed us to use many of the sounds we had collected and then turn them into percussive sounds. We also sampled various recorded sounds, for example the guitar feedback when the character is ‘plugged in’ to the music.

#concept #project #video

Tutorial 9: Sound generation

Firstly, i created a wind sound effect using Adobe audition noise generation function. I produced ten seconds of low frequency pink noise and moved the nodes around the ADSR graphic area in order to produce the curveture of how wind curves in and out of volume and velocity etc, furthermore i then added a spline curve to enhance the natural curve of the noise. I also boosted the low frequencies in order for the sound to become more bassy, as if the high end signals had been cut out like they would in a natural environment.

Pink noise.

Modulating soundwave.

I continued this experimentation of the noise/tone generation by creating the sound effect of a spaceship landing. I did this by generating a tone and changing the bass frequency (sine wave) to 50Hz by 10 seconds. I then modulated the wave by 20Hz with a modulation frequency of 8Hz, setting the frequency component fader to max and choosing INV.sine as the flavour. This produced the low throbbing sound desired, descending in frequency into a gradual hum.

Tone generation.

Here, I created a synth sound using sound generation. Firstly i selected white noise by using tone generation in Adobe audition and altered its frequencies and wave appearance in order to create a wind sound. I generated a continuous click noise based upon the experiment of creating the sound of a spaceship landing using white noise to create a bassy, phaser sound, altering the EQ levels and wave signals using tone generation in order to reduce the bass frequencies, giving the sound a deeper, clearer sound. I also added effects such as a subtle use of chorus, flange and a sweeping phaser. Sounds were then imported into Logic during the arrangement process. Ring modulator was used on many of the genertated sounds in order to give them an even more electronic sound.

EQ curve.

Synth *1

Synth *2 (phaser synth)

Spaceship landing noise.

Wind noise.

#Tutorial 9 #sound generation #adobe audition

Tutorial 7: Quantization

Using Cubase allows a musician to manipulate audio not necessarily recorded live, instead using MIDI to create music which can be manipulated and altered in order to fit different beats etc where they may not have fitted before. Firstly, i assigned each drum part to the Halion rock standard drum set as i felt the cymbals had more of a 'live' sound as well as the cymbals were more adaptable to be changed to have more swing. I also assigned the bass part to the prologue input and changed the sound signal to a parabolic while enabling tracking and phasing; this gave the bass a more realistic, low end frequency. I then used the quantise feature in order to give the pre-recorded sounds a different groove with more swing. However, rather than quantizing the sounds so much that they sound mechanical and robotic, i used the non-quantise technique as well as using iterative quantising to move some of the bass notes slightly rather than moving them to fit the snap, which would have made them sound quantized too indiscreetly.

Using the sample editor in order to edit hitpoints and create a groove. When quantizing the bass parts in future this will link the relevant bass notes to bass drum hits, equalling in the instruments sounding more in sync.

The non-quantise setting, experimenting using the swing and magnetic function in order to maintain a human feel while preserving a level of quantisation.

Quantization track.

#Tutorial 7 #Quantization #Cubase

Tutorial 4: music composition 01- hits

Here I took percussive sounds that had been recorded and used Auditions snapping tools in order to compose a short, continuous percussive beat. Firstly I selected the sounds I wanted to use and then changed the timeline to ‘bars and beats,’ enabling me to have a more precise view of where each beat would lay in accordance to the timing of the track. To further this technique I enabled the ‘snap to ruler function’ in order for each beat to fall precisely on a designated beat of the bar.

When recording our video, we found that in order to sync the video to the audio at 120 sometimes proved challenging, therefore we constructed a sync sheet to enable us to verify where each sound land on each part of a beat. This aided the transitions between shots far more effectively as both the audio and video then played around each other as opposed to the shots in the video changing out of time to the music etc.

Sequenced track

#music composition #tutorial 4

Tutorial 2: Multi-track exercise

Using Adobe audition in order to fit music to video. For the intro music i decided to use Greenday's 'American idiot,' i chose this song in order for the video to have an attention grabbing and exciting beginning, using the music to give the video connotations of adrenaline and high octane, themes which are commonly associated with sports such as surfing etc. During the first interview i chopped up sections of the audio and repeated them while fading them under the speech, i did this so not to distract the viewer from the speech itself and to maintain a level of ambient background noise, when the speech finishes and goes back into surf footage i raised the volume so the chorus plays, obviously the primary section of the song fitting with the video.

Towards the end of the video i then used the Royksopp song to end the video, the subtle ambience of this song suited the ending of the video as its laid back tempo and sounds assisted the gradual fade out of the footage and of the audio itself, concluding the video. I felt that using a dynamic and exciting introduction grabs the viewers attention, and then using a juxtaposing track to finish was effective as it keeps the viewer engaged with the video as opposed to them potentially getting bored listening to the same song corresponding with no development to the video.

Noise reduction and click pop eliminator. Here I applied noise reduction and the click/pop eliminator in order to reduce high frequency background noise on the vocal track, reducing any unwanted background noise etc in order to give the audio/video a more professional finish.

#Tutorial 2 #multi-track exercise

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Jordan Hodson: Music production